connect wrote in Wed Dec 21, 2011 8:16 am:Although, if there was to be a different default airport for ONLY Steam DLed FG, maybe it could work.

This will still duplicate the problem; even with Steam, there will be both "noobs" and people seeking for a more professional flying environment. I doubt making a new, Steam-only default scenery area will help.

Having FlightGear available on Steam is an interesting idea, but I think you need to think a lot more about higher level issues before diving into possible achievements, fun though that is!

Here are some to get you started. I'm sure there are lots more I haven't thought about. Most are to do with the gap in expectations between someone downloading FG from the website and a Steam user who is used to downloading paid for software.

1) How will support work? People downloading FlightGear from the website have fairly low expectations of support - they are downloading something for free from a website. People using Steam will expect some level of support if things don't work straight away, because most of the software there is paid for.

2) How will downloading additional aircraft/scenery work?

3) Steam is very popular. Will the overall FG infrastructure support (say) 50,000 new MP users? Where would the downloads be hosted? On Steam servers, or do they simply link to our existing hosting?

4) While this would result in lots of people trying FG, would their expectations of software quality mean that they would get a good impression of FG, or would they think "pile of rubbish, why did I download it" because they would be comparing it with paid-for sims?

I think this is a lot more work than you think, and really requires FG to become much more polished than it is at present. It would be very easy to launch it on Steam and do a lot of damage to the FlightGear "brand" if lots of people download it and have a bad experience.

If you are serious about this, I think you need to get the entire development community behind it. As a first step I would suggest joining the flightgear-devel mailing list and posting your proposal there. Note that it'll need to be well written and pretty detailed to be taken seriously.

stuart wrote in Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:43 am:...If you are serious about this, I think you need to get the entire development community behind it. As a first step I would suggest joining the flightgear-devel mailing list and posting your proposal there. Note that it'll need to be well written and pretty detailed to be taken seriously.

Also, the downlaods will be hosted on Steams servers,@connect, with the DLC, i ment the best of fg, also, certain items, not WHOLE hangars....

@Stuart,1.steam will try to provide the answers, but i don't know edzactly for sure yet....2. Probably will be used on the steam servers to, but not sure, will as blusnowman.3. steam may haves its own MP server but with the option of the normal fg one, also that steam can make private servers that people can host.....4. as flightgear is free and also the only flight sim on steam i don't think people will care, Steam wants a flight sim that is free, this is what they can get.

I will get Blusnowman to create a email of what he plans to do....

I want 10 of the top Aircraft, Airport models and scenery areas that arent in the base package, terrasync ect, these will be on steam as DLC.....

Please vote!also, we have the achievements, Also is anyone interested in helping with steam coding, blusnowman is happy to do it all, but is probably wanting help on the inside.if you read all this thank you!Spitfirebruce21

spitfirebruce21 wrote in Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:19 am:Also, the downlaods will be hosted on Steams servers,@connect, with the DLC, i ment the best of fg, also, certain items, not WHOLE hangars....

Then dictate that clearer.

If we want FlightGear to look professional we want top notch screenshots (like those by ot-666 in the LOWI thread, not yours), good, proper English (again, not like you) and a thorough knowledge, which I've only seen from Brin, not you.

spitfirebruce21 wrote in Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:19 am:I want 10 of the top Aircraft, Airport models and scenery areas that arent in the base package, terrasync ect, these will be on steam as DLC.....

spitfirebruce21 wrote in Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:19 am:4. as flightgear is free and also the only flight sim on steam i don't think people will care, Steam wants a flight sim that is free, this is what they can get.

I think you're assuming Steam will take on a lot of support/server cost for no revenue/profit. I think it's much more likely that they will host the download on their content distribution network, but expect to use our existing support, MP servers etc. The only way to be sure will be to ask.

spitfirebruce21 wrote in Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:19 am:4. as flightgear is free and also the only flight sim on steam i don't think people will care, Steam wants a flight sim that is free, this is what they can get.

My concern is more that Steam may offer a great opportunity to increase the number of people using FG, but a bad launch will give people a very bad impression of FG that will be difficult/impossible to replace. This is really something that can be done only once, so it is critical that it is done carefully and in the right way.

I think that's a good idea. As I said already, I think the idea is interesting, but the actual execution of the project will be key and something I think will need more than two people. FYI - my day job is managing large software engineering projects, and these things are always much more complicated than they look at first glance. The good news is that there are lots of people here and on the -devel list with a huge amount of expertise.

Why only airliners and business jets? Some people will not even consider flying these; I consider these types of aircraft to be a high tech flying bus, for example. This not intended as a put down as I am just trying to point out that different people have different interests. Someone like myself who finds airliners and business jets uninteresting would look at this and just walk away. Wouldn't a broader more representative sampling be better? Perhaps pick 10 or 15 categories (like WWII fighter, jet fighter, prop bomber, jet bomber, glider, single engine GA, multi engine GA, modern airliner, busniess jet, prop airliner, helicopter...) and then select a "best" aircraft in each. This makes the odds of a new user finding something of interest much more likely.